A floor manager at a popular Vancouver restaurant was fired after refusing service to a customer wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, CBC reported.
Darin Hodge, who worked at Vancouver's Stanley Park Teahouse for 18 months, said the incident began Tuesday when he asked the customer to remove his red MAGA baseball cap, Global News reported. The red caps with the slogan were an important part of Donald Trump's campaign strategy en route to the presidency in 2016.
When the customer refused to remove the hat, Hodge asked the patron to leave the restaurant, Global News reported.
In an emailed statement, Hodge said he had no regrets.
“I stand by my decision to ask the patron to remove his hat. The MAGA hat has come to symbolize racism, bigotry, islamaphobia (sic), misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia,” Hodge wrote. “As a person with a strong moral backbone, I had to take a stand against this guest’s choice of headwear while in my former place of work.”
According to Andy Crimp, the restaurant's general manager, the man was seated on the patio that evening when Hodge confronted him, CBC reported.
"(He) took over the table and requested that (the customer) take the hat off," Crimp said.
"(The customer) said he had a right to wear it. (Hodge) said if you don't take the hat off, we won't serve you. And the man left."
The Sequoia Company, which owns the restaurant, told CBC that Hodge was fired for not following its "philosophy of tolerance."
“Sequoia does not support intolerance of any kind, and it is because of these principles that we cannot discriminate against someone based on their support for the current administration in the United States or any other bona fide political party,” the company said in a statement.
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